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There is massive perception gap in PCTs especially their CEOs and boards. They have failed to deliver an efficient and effective commissioning service, but they think they are doing a world class job. This is contrary to the Health Select Committee (“HSC”) report which said it was ‘poor to mediocre’ at best.

The changes in the NHS White Paper are simply the combined manifestos of the Coalition parties, which has 64% share of the electoral vote. The Libdems manifesto stated they would “scrap Strategic Health Authorities”. The Conservative party stated they would “give them [GPs] the power to hold patients budgets and commission care on their behalf”; and “remove the need for expensive layers of bureaucracy to oversee the NH S”.

If the HSC report stated that PCTs and SHAs were doing an effective and efficient job (never mind world class job), Lansley would not have had the evidence or political backing to make these radical changes. PCTs and SHAs boards have brought this demise on themselves. They have failed their staff and patients by their poor resource allocation decisions over the past 8 years, and consequently delivering very poor value for the £110bn annual investment.

PCT and SHA boards are still going to be paid vast salaries and huge pensions over the next 3 years. So, if PCTs and SHAs wish to salvage their reputations and show the NHS that they are as good as they say they are these boards need to collectively: 1) deliver £19bn worth of productivity savings before April 2013; 2) ensure the delivery of high quality patient care; and 3) achieve at least European levels of health outcomes. If they do this they may find that GP Consortia and the NHS Commissioning Board are simply PCTs and SHAs that have been rebranded.